Re: The Pages of Punch
1899: A sign of the times
On one level this joke is about a simple pun. The lady cyclist wants to know if she is on the right way to Wareham whereas the local man assures her that she is wearing ‘em’ correctly.
The real point is his reaction to what she is wearing. However ridiculous this seems to us, his problem is that what he is seeing is in total contrast to what has been the norm throughout his life: men wear trousers, women wear skirts. He is perhaps being a bit condescending but in reality the reaction might have been a lot less polite.
With the availability of bicycles greater mobility was possibility for a lot of people. The social impact was tremendous. But women found that they could not travel far while wearing the long skirts that were then the universal style. In fact it would have been dangerous to try.
At first a few brave souls decided that the cycle was more important than the style. The lady in the cartoon is shown wearing the garment which allows her to enjoy the same freedom of movement as men while retaining some of the attributes of the traditional skirt. It was called the divided skirt. To the man in the cartoon it looks like trousers. Hence the joke.
I think that the cartoonist has been entirely fair to the lady cyclist. He has not shown her as an unfeminine extremist but as an entirely respectable well-dressed member of the middle classes. It isn’t clear whether he is reflecting public acceptance of this innovation or is simply advancing its cause.